Perahu-Perahu

Perahu-Perahu, which means ‘boats’ in Indonesian, is an intriguing glimpse into Indonesian history and culture told through music and wayang kuli (Indonesian shadow puppetry) with a modern twist.

It explores the precarious relationship between humans, their treatment of mother earth and outlines the history of travel across the waters between Indonesia and Australia, all told with the sea as a linking element.

The setting is simple and reminded me in some ways of my early school life. We are greeted by two large screens and two overhead projectors dramatically down lit. To the side is an area for the ‘orchestra’ with mats to sit on and instruments, some well-known to Western music goers and some more at home in a Gamelan orchestra.

Using hundreds of hand-crafted cut-outs, Indonesian-Australian artist Jumaadi creates a world peopled with humans and animals, gods and mythical creatures. Rather than relying on the ancient tradition of intricate cut out puppets fashioned from animal skins, Jumaadi gives us a modern day take on story-telling versus social comment.

The dual projections are skilfully handled, the shadow-makers (Jumaadi, Maki Ogawa and Julia Westwood) pass their shadow-characters effortlessly across the two screens, overlaying their images, adding colour and distorting scale. They work perfectly in synch and work their way through a huge amount of cut outs without referring to a script.

Hand in hand with the imagery, the music carries and accentuates the stories. Surpassing a background score, the impressive composition and accomplished performances by Sawang Jabo, Mick Stuart, Kyati Suharto and dramaturg How Ngean Lim are equal partners to the storytelling. Blending the traditional with the contemporary, the gongs and bells of Indonesia take us on a tonal journey of conflict and tension while the Western drums and electric guitar lift our spirits, particularly at the show’s finale, the pineapple wedding!

As skilful as the puppetry and music are I found the narrative difficult to follow at times. An English narration would have ensured I was totally immersed. While some of the Bahasa was translated in spoken word or song the majority left me uninformed.

Perahu-Perahu is a fusion of the ancient and modern, East and West, that lifts our spirits while giving us some issues to consider.

Barry Hill